inspired by a pic i dug up, do any of yall have any pictures of retro videogsme dev offices? i also remember a really good polygon intrrview series with old devs about their offices but cant find it
looks like hell.
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the fluorescents, they burn me
every American game dev office I known runs with lights off and shades drawn and a few lamps as hearths. It’d be nice if we could have some sunlight but at least it’s cozy.
Japanese offices run on efficiency! and productivity! and always leave the fluorescents on so workers don’t fall asleep
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I wish I had the opportunity to take photos of my mom’s old office spaces at Computerland and Microsoft. So much classic cubicle culture.
My dad worked in IT in the 90s so stuff like this is extremely nostalgic for me actually.
I just want to curl up in an office chair with commander keen 4 and feel the simplicity of childhood looking at photos like this.
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OMGs yes
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oh god the soft-light wannaba spa offices are the absolute worst, I crave the harsh glare of flourescent tubes
Both my parents worked, so there was always a need to bring me to one of their workplaces when child care wasn’t available and I wasn’t old enough to be left on my own.
One summer ('94 I think), I spent a lot of time in a spare cubicle at the Microsoft office where my mom did tech support. There were very few games available, but there was always Microsoft Fine Artist and Microsoft Creative Writer, two pieces of Windows 3.1 software that I have some seriously fond nostalgia for.
Anyways, I apparently impressed someone in the company with how I was using the software, because later that year they asked me to attend a trade show (that my mom was also going to be working) and give a stage demo of some brand-new software I had never played before: The Magic Schoolbus games.
By “stage demo” they meant “play the game while we project it onto a large screen in an auditorium”.
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I played the shit out of those! They were always a cut above so much of the other edutainment crap.
Ok at some point this week I have decided i’m making an edutainment game thread.
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When my damn adapters finally arrive and I turn this raspberry pi zero into a windows 3.1 machine, I fully intend to go through those first two games again.
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That’s never stopped me before!
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Interesting human specimen John Szczepaniak included a ton of office floorplans in his books
I’ve heard a lot of American game companies draw their shades and make little nerd caves for themselves. Goons. I would rather work in a fluorescent light.
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There’s a famous anecdote that John Romero’s Ion Storm, high on an insane Eidos contract and busy working out his masterpiece Daikatana, leased the top floor of a new Austin skyscraper. Beautiful space with a glass atrium over the entire office, amazing views.
Come a week later and everyone has a blanket over their cubicle because they want to work in the dark to see their screens.
And beyond that the heat of a computer office with the Texas sunlight led them to install a (very expensive) shutter system to block the light from their penthouse glass-roofed suite.
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poke me enough and I’ll gossip about the servers kept in a greenhouse
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This isn’t games but it is technical 90s computing. (Er, it’s not really an office either.) Really cool classic video. Don’t miss the english subtitles!
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i found this on shmupulations, it’s Falcom’s office from either the 90’s or late 80’s? looks spartan.
wish i could find photos of like, telenet japanxs office from the 80’s which was a house someone rented that had a dedicated smoking room and a dedicated nap room
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oh my god what
this sounds brilliant for the plants and terrible for the computers